Hughes Family: December 1 – December 20, 2013

December. The month we celebrate peace, joy and love but practice none of them. Each year I think “Man, last December was rough… maybe this one will be better” and each year one of Santa’s gifts is always disappointment. Don’t get me wrong- I enjoy the holidays but for some reason they just bring out the crazy in some people. I’ll have to throw up (literally) a post about my retail adventures when I have time. Despite December’s difficulty there are periodic pepperings of pleasure.

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The first real snow of the year. I wish I was still a kid sometimes- not that I can’t play in the snow as an adult, but somehow as a child you’re immune to the wet, cold and dirty. Sledding, snow forts and shoveling (so far I have only done last).

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Mike wanted to go to Texas Road House and get steak for his birthday. We obliged. They made him ride the saddle and to my great surprise he actually hopped on (after hiding under the table for a but)! I like to pretend it was the only way to get the birthday ice cream. Happy Birthday, Mike!

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The Sabins hosted their annual Christmas party and rented a cabin in Sundance! Fran and I made the sojourn and were treated to dinner, games and the traditional white elephant exchange. Thanks Sabins!

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Later in the month we had Mike’s Party: The Revenge. Round two involved a plethora of pals and Percy Jackson. He and his friends watches Sea of Monsters and ate donuts. Manly.
In honor of Bubs getting married we hosted another LAN party for him (I think this is seriously like the third one). We played, laughed, cried and ate until we couldn’t go on. And then, despite being bleary eyed and disoriented, we roused ourselves and played some more.

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What’s Christmas without tiny houses covered in candy? According to the tradition of our fathers we crafted little cottages from graham crackers and used various sugared sweets to decorate them. We let Chloe sprinkle her roof this year which was a good start. On the right is Gabe’s house.

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Here is my house (I always add an extra wing to give it the “daddy flair”). Fran’s house is next, decorated in a fine mix of blues, and then Mikes house and Claire’s house. Quite a cute little village.

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We did some ornament shopping at Hobby Lobby (man that’s a lot of ornaments). Our artificial tree died this year (after serving us faithfully for over a decade). We toyed around with the idea of getting a real tree. We bought this little guy at Lowe’s (they use these on Fran’s island) and I suggested we use that. But in the end tradition won out and we got another artificial tree (save the Earth!). 

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For our work party this year we went to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. There were enough people this year that we got our own theater! We had Zupa’s cater the event and it was a blast. Great movie too. 

The rest of December will probably be a blur of events. Personally I’d love a quiet Christmas but that’s just not in the cards.